22 October 2025
Baby gorilla Venus, the youngest of the western lowland gorilla troop at London Zoo, tried out her first spooky-looking pumpkin as an early Halloween treat.
Our zookeepers set up terrifyingly good-looking carved pumpkins in Gorilla Kingdom for the troop to enjoy the celebrations of the scariest time of the year, as our conservation Zoo is getting ready for its Boo at the Zoo event over this October half-term (25 October - 2 November).
Gorillas are herbivorous and feed on fruits, leaves, seeds and stems, and our keepers work with an expert zoo nutritionist to monitor their diet. For this special occasion, the gentle vegetarians were treated to seven spooktacular pumpkins stuffed with their favourite pulses to sink their teeth into.
Silverback Kiburi got to the pumpkins first, gently munching the orange monsters on the island, Gernot ran around collecting bits of pumpkins to eat in peace, and baby Venus showed a great enterprising spirit, venturing behind mum Effie to try out her first ever earie treat.
Dan, our Zoological Operations Manager, said: “This half-term, we’ve concocted many fun and spooky activities for our visitors to enjoy London Zoo’s famous Boo at the Zoo celebrations, and we wanted to make sure the animals didn’t miss out on the fun.
“Halloween is the perfect excuse to spice up the diet of our animals, and it’s a great seasonal enrichment for them. Gorillas are also very curious by nature, and they really enjoyed discovering their stuffed surprises in spooky pumpkin shape this morning. It was also lovely to be able to treat our baby gorillas Venus and Juno to their first scary squashes – Venus displayed great curiosity and took some bites of the pumpkins under the watchful eye of mum Effie.”
London Zoo is home to over 8,000 amazing animals, many of which are threatened or extinct in the wild and part of vital conservation programmes. You can spot our gorilla babies and their four adults at London Zoo’s Boo at the Zoo this October half-term.
Boo at the Zoo guarantees wickedly wonderful family fun for all your loved ones, including spooky Animal Talks, a silent disco in glowing UV lighting and a Halloween craft exercise for little ones – all which highlight our conservation efforts. This Halloween half-term, your family can also take advantage of an amazing offer with children’s Zoo admission tickets at just £10.